Vincent van Gogh

Dr. H.P. Bremmer, The Hague

Floris Bremmer, The Hague (by descent from the above)

E.J. van Wisselingh & Co., Amsterdam

Myrtil Frank, The Hague & New York

E.V. Thaw and Co., New York

Benjamin Edward Bensinger, Chicago (by 1969)

Private Collection, Tokyo (by 1975 until at least 1986)

Private Collection, United States

James Goodman Gallery, New York (acquired in 2001)

Acquired from the above in 2003

Amsterdam, Kunsthandel Huinck en Scherjon, Scheilderijen door Vincent van Gogh, J.B. Jonkind, Floris Vester, 1932, no. 2

The Hague, Gemeentemuseum, Verzameling H.P. Bremmer, 1950, no. 43

Antwerp, Zaal Comité voor Artistieke Werking, Vincent van Gogh en zijn Hollandse tijgenoten, no. 10

Amsterdam, E.J. van Wisselingh & Co., Vincent van Gogh, quelques oeuvres de l’époche 1881-1886, provenant de collections particulières nérlandaises, 1956, no. 4

Essen, Villa Hügel, Vincent van Gogh, Leben und Schaffen, Dokumentation, Gemälde, Zeichnungen, 1957, no. 138

Paris, Musée Jacquemart André, Van Gogh, 1960, no. 83

Amsterdam, E.J. van Wisselingh & Co., Vincent van Gogh, quelques oeuvres de  l'époque 1881-1886, provenant de collections particulières néerlandaises, 1961, no. 13

Munich, Städische Galerie, Vincent van Gogh, Zeichnungen und Aquarelle, 1961, no. 21

Chicago, The Art Institute, Private Collections in Chicago, 1969

Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Nagoya, City Museum, Vincent van Gogh, 1985-86, no. 38

New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Vincent van Gogh: The Drawings, 2005, no. 10, illustrated in color p. 78

Jacob-Baart de la Faille, L"oevre de Vincent van Gogh, Catalogue Raisonné, Paris & Brussels, 1928, no. 945

W.F. Douwes, Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam, 1930, p. 71

Walther Vanbeselaere, De Hollandsche periode (1880-1885) in het werk van Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam, 1937, discussed pp. 84, 143, 145, 148 and 408

The Complete Letters of Vincent van Gogh, vol. I, Greenwich, Connecticut, 1959, discussed pp. 421-23

Jacob-Baart de la Faille, The Works of Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam, 1970, no. F945, illustrated p. 352

W.J.A. Visser, Vincent van Gogh en ’s-Gravenhage, Geschiedkundige Vereniging Die Haghe. Jaarboek 1973, The Hague 1973, p. 95

Jan Hulsker, The Complete Van Gogh, Paintings, Drawings and Sketches, New York, 1980, no. 160, illustrated p. 44

Michel van der Mast and Charles Dumas, Van Gogh en Den Haag, Zwolle, 1990, pp. 64 & 66

Jacob-Baart de la Faille, Vincent van Gogh, The Complete Works on Paper, Catalogue Raisonné, vol. I, San Francisco, 1992, no. 945, catalogued p. 29; vol. II, no. 945, illustrated XXIX

Liesbeth Heenk, Vincent van Gogh's Drawings: An analysis of their production and uses, London, 1995, pp. 63 & 76

Jan Hulsker, The New Complete Van Gogh, Amsterdam, 1996, no. 160, illustrated p. 44, pp. 64 & 66

Leo Jansen, Hans Luijtens & Nienke Bakker, eds., Vincent van Gogh, The Letters, The Complete Illustated and Annotated Edition, Volume 2: The Hague, 1881-1883, London, 2009, illustrated in color p. 118

Very good condition. The artist first made a pencil drawing over which he applied opaque and transparent watercolor, which are fresh and vibrant. Van Gogh used a wove paper which is now pasted on cardboard. In the sky there is an expertly restored-tear. The upper right and lower left corners have small losses. The white opaque pigment is showing craquelure in some of the thicker areas, which is stable.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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Van Gogh’s meticulous depiction of Dutch peasant life in this beautiful composition demonstrates the artist’s technique at its finest.   The scene takes place in Scheveningen, a district of the Hague where the artist had relocated only a few months earlier.   In the catalogue for the 2005 drawings exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum, the present work is identified as one of four depictions that Van Gogh completed in the summer and autumn of 1882 of the fish-drying barn on Koklenwagenslag.  The present version dates from July of that year, when the greenery of the landscape was at its peak.

Van Gogh had taken many walks through the fishing village of Scheveningen when he worked at Goupil’s gallery between 1869-73.   The location offered several picturesque subjects that interested him from the start, but it was not until 1882 that he could return to the location and depict the activities of the local fisheries.  In a letter to Theo dated July 26, Van Gogh discusses the present composition and his technical approach: “I have now made three of Scheveningen, again the fish drying barn, which you know – drawn as elaborately – but now there is color too.  I am sure you know, Theo, that it is not more difficult to work in color than in black and white; indeed, perhaps the reverse, for as far as I can see, three-fourths of it depends on the original sketch, and almost the whole watercolor rests on its quality.  It is not sufficient to give an à peu près; it was and is my aim to intensify it.  In the black-and-white fish drying barn that is already apparent, I think, for in them you can follow everything and trace the composition of the whole.  And look here, I think the reason for my working so much more easily in watercolors is that I have tried so hard and for such a long time to draw more correctly...When I returned to that fish drying barn, a wonderfully bright fresh green of turnips or rapes had sprouted in those baskets full of sand in the foreground which serve to prevent the sand from driving off the dunes.  Two months ago everything was bare except the grass in the little garden, and now this rough, wild, luxuriant growth forms a very pretty effect in contrast to the bareness of the rest” (quoted in Vincent van Gogh: The Drawings, op. cit., p. 78).

 

For many of these depictions of The Hague, Van Gogh began with pencil, continued with pen and ink, and then applied washes of watercolor. The present work is a fine example of how he was able to harness the potential of this medium. Johannes van der Wolk has noted its importance in the artist's production throughout his life: “In fact, Van Gogh never entirely gave up painting in watercolour. He never became a watercolourist in the traditional sense of the term, however, for apart from a few exceptions he preferred to use watercolour as his body colour rather than transparently. It seems that as a rule he liked to use watercolour as a means to colour in a composition rather to build up a picture with it.  Entirely in line with this somewhat aloof attitude towards the medium of watercolour, when making watercolour drawings, he was not only concerned with the technique itself, but particularly also with composition problems” (Johannes van der Wolk, Vincent van Gogh, Drawings (exhibition catalogue), Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo, 1990, p. 69).